


persons of fate

by lovely_huening



Category: TOMORROW X TOGETHER | TXT (Korea Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Domestic Fluff, Frenemies, Friends to Enemies to Lovers, I'm not that cruel, Implied/Referenced Cheating, M/M, Red Strings of Fate, because it's sookai, i'll try to not make it too sad, not between sookai, soulmates thing
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-01-23
Updated: 2021-01-23
Packaged: 2021-03-15 05:13:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,319
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28933080
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lovely_huening/pseuds/lovely_huening
Summary: After a messy breakup, the last thing Kai expected was to wake up with a red string tied in place of the ring he'd discarded a night ago.
Relationships: Choi Soobin & Huening Kai, Choi Soobin/Huening Kai, Huening Kai/Kang Taehyun
Comments: 6
Kudos: 42





	persons of fate

Kai can't sleep.

It's not that he doesn't want to sleep, because he does.

He wants to sleep but he can't.

He has a pretty accurate biological clock so he knows he has to be up in about ten minutes anyway, but he was really hoping to squeeze as much sleep into every last second of those ten minutes that he could.

A persistent, annoying tugging on his left ring finger is doing its best to rob him of those last ten minutes and pry him out of bed. His finger, which till last night wore a platinum engagement band, twitches erratically as something tightens around it, and the first thing that immediately jumps to his mind is Taehyun.

Motherfucking Taehyun trying to shove that Godforsaken ring back on his finger.

"Taehyun," Kai groans, running thin on patience and thoroughly unamused, "I _told_ you last night that it's over. Now get the fuck out of my apartment."

The tugging continues, completely undeterred by his anger. In fact, at one point, the pulling becomes stronger.

" _Taehyun_!" Kai screams at nearly full voice, which he has never done before. Kai rolls onto his back, eyes squeezed shut, and swipes at the air. He's not in the mood to see Taehyun right now, but he has no problem punching him in the neck. "I told you, I'm sick of the cheating and I'm sick of the lying! Now get out of my apartment before I shove that ring down your throat!"

When his hand doesn't connect with anything, Kai sits straight up in bed and opens his eyes.

He's in his room alone.

No sign of Taehyun anywhere; no sign that he's even been there this morning.

Whatever is toying with him gives one last hard pull on his finger, and Kai jumps. He pulls his hand out from beneath his comforter and looks at his finger. No ring. Instead there's a red string tied in place of the ring. Kai turns his hand, looking it over top and bottom and sees that the string has a tail that spills down over his hand and onto his comforter, traveling the length of his bed and then disappearing over the edge to the floor. The red string twitches and Kai slams his right hand over it to stop it. The vibrations from his hand carry down the line of string in a shallow wave and he wonders if whoever is at the other end of the string felt it move.

Still not convinced that this isn't some silly half-assed romantic ploy of Taehyun's to win him over, Kai climbs out of bed to follow the string and see where it leads. He picks up the loose portion and winds it around his hand as he goes. The string winds through his hallway to his front door. Kai stops, his eyes staring at the point where the string feeds beneath the door, and he suddenly gets the feeling that this whole act is absurd. This has to be Taehyun's doing; Kai knows it. After following this stupid string down to the front stoop of his apartment building where Taehyun has spent the whole night, wide awake to prove his undying loyalty, there will follow hours of uncomfortable apologizing and reminiscing which will most likely result in Kai giving in just to end the agony for a little while longer.

Well, he can't do it. Not again. A wicked smile curls his lips as he considers cutting the string. As the thought enters his head, and plans to fish out his sewing shears and snip the thing off his finger formulate the string sputters frantically, dancing around as if it knows. It knows Kai plans on cutting it. Kai giggles and rolls his eyes, but the tugging that he can only describe as panicked unsettles him.

"Alright," he mutters out loud, "I won't cut you, you stupid little thing."

The words tumble from his mouth in a mumbled rush and the string immediately goes still.

Kai gasps.

The string is slack. Kai gives it an experimental tug and waits. After a few minutes, the string tugs back.

Kai sighs. String or no string he should go back to bed, but curiosity is eating him alive as the pulling begins again. Kai slips on his house shoes, not stylish but sturdy, and without even taking a moment to change clothes or put on a jacket, he opens his door and continues the trail outside, through another hallway and down a few flights of stairs until he's out onto the street.

The sun, unusually high in the sky for five in the morning, drives the chill from Kai's unprotected skin, but his attention stays fixed on the string cutting along the grey cement like a tiny river. Down one street and up another, around a corner and across a street, until the string takes him to a bus stop where the bus sits waiting for him. Kai climbs on board and puts his hand in his pocket, searching for his metro card, but the bus driver waves him away and Kai follows the string to a seat near the back where the string sits gathered in a small pool. Kai takes one last peek out the front windshield of the bus as the large vehicle starts to move. The bus pulls onto the main road and Kai can see the string stretched out ahead of it, trailed over the dark asphalt.

Kai picks up the pile of string from the seat and sits beside a petite white-haired woman staring out the window at the cars and buildings passing by. She turns and watches him fiddle with the wound pile of string unwinding swiftly in his lap as the bus drives on.

"Where are you headed, dear?" the old lady asks, in a thick Korean, looking up into his eyes with a soft smile.

“How did you—” Kai blinks. Not that he never finds any Asian here, it’s just most of them never talked to him before in the five years he’s been living here. They must have thought he a native with how he looks, so the fact that this old lady is talking to him not in English, but Korean, his mother language, confuses him even more. Well hopefully it’s just a coincidence, this lady looks to kind to be a serial killer anyway. “I mean, no, I'm just following this red thread," he says, holding up his hand and showing her the string tied to his finger. "Where are you headed?"

"Oh, I'm going home," she says, looking over the red thread, her eyes following it as it pulls through the door of the bus. "You know, some cultures believe that people who are destined to be together are connected by a red thread. It's called the red string of fate."

"Have you seen one before?" Kai asks.

"Yup," she says, nodding. "In fact, my grandson has one on his finger right now. He just can't see it yet, and unfortunately I won't be around when he does."

Kai nods, a little bounce of his head as he looks at the older woman's serene expression. Her words sadden him, but he's not entirely sure why. She turns to stare back out the window at the stop ahead.

"Do you believe it?" Kai asks.

The old lady shrugs.

"I think it's a beautiful idea," she confesses. "I guess the important question is do _you_ believe it. You're the one with the string on your finger."

The bus pulls to the curb, and the old woman puts a hand on Kai's knee.

"I believe this is your stop, dear," the lady says, pointing to the red thread continuing out the door.

"Thank you for your help, uh…"

"Sooah," the woman says with a smile, reaching out her hand for Kai to shake.

"Kai. Huening Kai."

"I know, dear," she says, gesturing to the door with her chin. "You had better get going."

Kai walks to the open bus door and steps outside, taking one last look at the smiling older lady with the startling dark eyes shooing him with her hands to get on his way.

The bus leaves him off in front of a tall building, and Kai knows right away he's uptown, but how he traveled from Bushwick to uptown Manhattan in the space of ten minutes he'll never understand. He follows the string past the doorman and other bustling people who don't even glance in his direction as he walks by, which he finds kind of odd considering he's dressed in his pajamas and following a red thread. It's almost as if no one else can see it but him…and Sooah. Maybe only those who believe can see.

The thread takes him to the elevator and when he walks in he sees it wrapped around the button for the 15th floor. Kai presses the button, a sense of urgency surrounding him, the premonition something inevitable is on the horizon and he needs to get to the end of the string quick before he loses what he came here for.

His future.

His forever.

The doors barely open and he slips through, pulling on the thread, holding tight with both hands as if it is his anchor, drawing him to the place where he actually belongs. Ahead of him is a door with the red string vanishing underneath. He can see it clear as day, as well as the bronze numbers screwed into the wood.

_1205_

Kai reaches a fist out to the door, preparing to knock, but the door is already opening. A light from inside floods the hall and for the first time he notices that he's been standing in darkness.

Darkness in the middle of the morning?

Then he notices that the light isn't coming from the room beyond the door; it's coming from the man's dragon-shaped eyes, gleaming and perfect and warm, like the sunlight on Kai's face. Kai can't make out any of his more distinct features, but for now that doesn't matter.

"Hello?" Kai's mouth clamps tightly around the word, his tongue stuck to the roof of his mouth as if it's covered in glue. The man's smile grows wider, and he opens his mouth to say hello back.

_Bzzz. Bzzz._

Kai's eyebrows shoot up in confusion at the sound.

"I'm sorry," Kai mumbles, his own mouth refusing to cooperate. "Can you repeat that?"

_Bzzz. Bzzz._

Kai shakes his head as the door starts to close.

"I…wait? I can't quite… No, please. Don't go away!"

But the door is already closed shut, and when the tumblers of the lock fall back into place, Kai flies backward into the elevator – no, not flying, he's traveling in reverse, rewinding like a movie, relaying the gathered thread, until he's walking backward up the steps to his apartment and climbing into bed.

Kai tries to gain some control but it's impossible since he never had it to begin with.

The alarm goes off one final time.

_Bzzz. Bzzz._

Kai's eyes snap open.

He's in bed again.

Alone.

Alone and awake, this time for real.

* * *

Kai reaches over and picks up his cell phone, the alarm buzzing away like an angry hornet. He switches it off before it can buzz one final time, and slams it back in place. Kai's eyes sweep the room, starting with the open door and working his way to his bed, but there's no sign of a red string anywhere. He looks over his comforter, pulling up the ends and shaking the thing out, even tossing it completely off his body, but there isn't a red fiber to be seen.

He sighs, trying to convince himself that he's relieved it was all a dream. A crazy, break-up induced dream.

Kai runs his fingers through his hair, dropping his head into his hand.

Something tickles his face.

He opens his eyes, reaching up to sweep his bangs off his forehead when he spots it – a deep flash of red. Kai sits motionless, busy convincing himself that it's the last traces of the dream playing tricks with his mind. He pulls his hand away from his face and looks at his finger, fully prepared to mock himself for his own foolishness, but he can't.

Tied around his finger like a thin little ring is a piece of red string.

It's tied there as a reminder that maybe it was all a dream, but that doesn't mean it isn't real; that there isn't really someone at the end of that red string waiting for him.

Either way, Kai's determined to find out. He hops out of bed, slips on his shoes, and races out the door, again dressed only in his pajamas.

He can't waste time changing.

Destiny waits for no one.

It looks as though destiny might even be on his side in his adventure. As soon as he races from his building he spots a cab by the curb and jumps in, sure he has shoved some poor man aside, but he couldn't care less.

"Where to?" the cabby asks with a queer smirk and now Kai's sure he shoved some poor guy out of the way.

"432 Park Avenue." The words come out as if they were waiting to be spoken.

Kai's rational brain knows this is all ludicrous. He knows that the dream and the red ring of string are simply ways his mind has chosen to cope with the emotionally draining events of last night. He probably tied the string to his finger before Taehyun showed up to remind himself to buy milk in the morning, and the fight they had caused him to forget.

Even though he's an intelligent man and knows all of this, he fidgets in his seat with excitement.

The cab seems to hit traffic on every single street, and a trip that should have taken thirty minutes at the most has already lasted over an hour. Trapped behind some massive gridlock, Kai can see the tall building looming overhead, and he can't sit any longer.

"I'm getting out," he yells louder than necessary, pulling his wallet out of his pocket, amazed that he remembered it this time, and throwing a few twenties in the front seat beside the driver. He's sure he's overpaid by at least forty dollars, but he bolts out of the cab and takes off down the street on foot, the whole time chanting in his head, "This is crazy, this is crazy, this is crazy."

His mind fills with pictures of him racing up to apartment 1205, knocking on the door, and being greeted by the confused and slightly frightened stares of a cute old couple while he tries to explain that he had a dream that his future lay somewhere behind their front door. As the daydream gets more vivid, with images of him being arrested as he yells, "It's okay! Sooah believes in me!", he manages to blow past the doorman and make it to the elevator without anyone stopping him.

He stops and stares at the elevator he's locked in. It looks the same – exactly the same as his dream. He pushes the button to the highest floor and tries to recall any time he'd ever been to the penthouse, even for a moment. With the exception of last night, he can't remember a single time.

Suddenly, his heart starts to pound.

He watches the lights on the elevator number panel bounce from button to button, his whole body shaking in anticipation of the moment when it would land on 96. The doors slide open and he slips out, barreling straight toward apartment 1205 with his arm outstretched.

Here's his moment. His brain screams at him to stop but his body hasn't gotten the message yet because he's at the door now knocking like a mad man, his heart leaping, every cell in his body telling him without a shadow of a doubt that this is where he belongs.

The door swings open and a man steps out, wearing a stunning black Armani suit along with a raised eyebrow on his otherwise cold face. Kai's smile dies and his racing heart stops short as he finds himself staring into the bottomless dark eyes of the last man he ever thought he would see in New York.

Soobin.

Choi Soobin. His former best friend and also apparently, his first fucking love.

Kai stumbles backward a step, wondering if he's going to be magically sucked back into the elevator, but he has no such luck.

"Well, angel," Soobin says, looking Kai up and down without, his previous cold expression melting into something close to fondness, which seems impossible after everything that had transpired between them five years ago. "—long time no see, I guess."

"Oh fucking hell," Kai breathes through numb lips. Soobin pulls back a bit at Kai's response.

"Hello and good morning to you, too," Soobin chuckles. "May I ask what you're doing here? I mean, I thought we had a doorman downstairs to keep people like you out."

Oh there he is.

"I think I'm here to see your roommate?" Kai asks hopefully. "Or brother? Or _cousin_?"

_Please fictional demigod, let someone else live here._

Soobin shakes his head, his smile dipping at the edges at Kai's desperation.

"Nope, just me. And as much as I would like to entertain you, I kind of have a funeral to go to, so if you don't mind…" Soobin makes a shooing motion with his hands that pricks Kai with an inescapable feeling of déjà vu, but he doesn't take the time to mull through it. When Kai doesn't leave right away, Soobin crosses his arms and watches the show of emotions on Kai's face as they go from disbelief to embarrassment and finally disappointment.

"I…I kind of got a message to meet someone here," Kai explains quietly, explaining it more to himself than to Soobin and frowning when he realizes it doesn't make any more sense out loud than it did in his head. "I guess I was wrong. I'm sorry I…interrupted…I'm sorry for your loss."

"No problem, but thanks," Soobin says with a smile, but Kai can tell that Soobin's more bothered than he's letting on. Kai knows the face of grief when he sees it. He nods and gives Soobin a wave as he turns to leave. With his back to him, Kai misses how Soobin's eyes suddenly widen when he catches sight of Kai's hand.

"Uh, Kai?" Soobin calls after him. Kai stops and turns, his hand still hovering in the air.

"What?"

"What's that?"

Soobin points to Kai's hand, his face drawn, becoming paler by the second. Kai looks at his hand, having completely forgotten about the piece of red string tied around his ring finger.

"Oh, this?" Kai says, pulling his hand behind his back to hide the string, knowing it was too late and he was about to get ribbed for having it on his finger. "It's…I tied it there to remember…to buy milk, on my way home."

If Kai could have face-planted without Soobin noticing, he would have. As it is, he's making plans to do it the second he gets back to the elevator as punishment for being such a disaster under stress.

"Is that so?" Soobin bites his lip and looks thoughtfully at the arm tucked behind Kai's back.

"That's right," Kai says in defense of his lie that Soobin isn't buying. "Why?"

"Well…"

Soobin steps out into the hallway and raises his own left hand for Kai to see. Kai's mouth drops, his stopped heart stuttering to race again as his eyes fall on a bright red piece of string tied in a knot around Soobin's ring finger.

"I think you and I might have something to talk about."

**Author's Note:**

> i don't know what i was thinking posting a chaptered fic but this idea had been on my mind for months now. i hope you guys enjoyed it! any thoughts to share? :v


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